Our Home Vineyard is just off the back patio of our guest house and is a little under four of our 600 acres, and there’s no place like Home. While four of our six hundred seem insignificant, the Home Vineyard hits a home run with every vintage. The acreage is the only thing small about it, as this vineyard year after year produces truly memorable intensely jammy Zinfandel with bodacious body and the softest touch of silky tannin. Zinfandel so special, we are willing to do quite a bit more workfrom vine to the glass. Zinfandel as a varietal has made a name for itself as a prolifically uneven ripener. The berries on the crown of the cluster tend to ripen earlier being closer to the nutrient source of the plant and more exposed to the sun than the berrieson the bottom of the cluster. When we ferment the clusters, the higher sugars from the top and the lower from the bottom balance each other out beautifully. The Home Vineyardacts like a microcosm of the zinfandel varietal. The vineyard is ringed with majestic protected valley oak whose deep roots cause the vines on the perimeter to compete for nutrients and water. As such the vines on the perimeter ripen much more quickly then inside the vineyard. The 2006 vintage was picked on two different dates, a week apart.
The grapes are crushed into half ton macrobinsand left with their skins for a full ten days of fermentation. Four times a day the solid cap of skins is punched down by hand to maximize extraction from skins while minimizing extraction from harsh seed tannin. Each lot was fermented separately, then pressed into American and French small oak barrels, 38% of which was new oak. The individual lots aged for fifteen months before being blended for bottling.
Terra d’Oro 2006 Home Vineyard Zinfandel is something to write home about. Only four acres, the Home Vineyard continues to provide premier fruit, yielding a stunning, albeit small production, wine. The nose is dominated by cranberry and raspberry and spiced with cinnamon, Mexican chocolate, and candied orange peel. The body is able to support a good amount of toasty oak. Knockout fruit and richly spiced flavors and aromas settle into a surprisingly soft subtle finish. Enjoy with a holiday dinner…or for those other nights of the season. The richness of this wine begs for duck confit, roasted rabbit, or game hen. A wine of this warmth and depth can always be enjoyed on the sofa with a loved one, a romantic movie, or a good novel.
